1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to an apparatus for maintaining freshness and, more particularly, to an apparatus for storing items, including decoration flowers, perishable foodstuffs such as bean-curd, and fruit such as peaches, for a lengthy period of time and in large quantities while maintaining freshness of the items for a lengthy period of time by continuously supplying cool and humid air to the items.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As well known to those skilled in the art, a conventional freshness maintaining apparatus is designed such that compressed air is produced by an air compressor and is blown on items through a nozzle together with water, thus maintaining the freshness of the items.
However, the conventional apparatus has a problem in that water and compressed air are directly sprayed on the items stored in the apparatus through the nozzle, thus noise is generated due to the spray of the compressed air, and a temperature around the air compressor undesirably rises due to heat generated by an operation of the air compressor.
The conventional apparatus has another problem in that it is designed to increase the humidity of an area using the compressed air and the nozzle, therefore it is possible to increase the humidity of a limited area, that is, a narrow area, but it is difficult to increase the humidity of a large area to maintain the freshness of a large quantity of items. Further, the conventional apparatus has a further problem in that it is designed to atomize water and spray the atomized water to items by compressed air, so water which is not atomized may be discharged to the items, thus being in direct contact with the items. Particularly, when water is in direct contact with items, such as fruit and flowers, the items are rapidly spoiled, thus deteriorating value.
When an injection pressure is increased to overcome the above-mentioned problem, it is possible to increase the humidity of a large storage space, but noise is generated and operational safety of the apparatus is poor, thus exerting a bad influence on items stored in the storage space. Further, although the storage space is humid, parts of the items are dried due to the compressed air. In order to solve such a problem, a plurality of injection nozzles may be installed in the storage space. However, in this case, installation costs as well as equipment costs are increased, thus it is economically inefficient.
Further, in order to overcome the above-mentioned problems, there is proposed another conventional apparatus which is provided with a refrigerant circulation unit to increase the humidity of a storage space without using compressed air. However, the conventional apparatus has a problem in that it is small in size, thus it is possible to freshly store a small quantity of items, but it is impossible to store a large quantity of items. The conventional apparatus has another problem in that it is impossible to store a large quantity of items, due to characteristics of the refrigerant circulation unit integrated with the apparatus. In addition to these problems, the conventional apparatus has several problems.